Extra Services

Schoolboy rescued after three-hour ordeal at sea

Date Posted: 2003-10-31

The Maritime Safety Agency (Japan Coast Guard) patrols have rescued a 15-year-old junior high school student off the coast of Kunigami Village after he had managed to cling to a cooler box for three hours when he was carried out to the ocean.

Officials say Tsuyuki Kaneko had gone fishing with his father close to the mouth of Aha River in Kuinigami Village. When he tried to jump from rock to rock he slipped and fell into the stream that began to carry him toward the ocean.

His father, who was some ways away, saw what happened and threw his son a plastic cooler box that the boy managed to grab. As the stream carried him further to the sea he hang to the box while his father ran to call for help.

An MSA rescue helicopter and a patrol boat arrived to the scene after about three hours and managed to spot the boy still hanging to the cooler. They rescued the boy, who was totally unharmed despite of his ordeal.